livingsky - More ideas basket

Please use this page to add any thoughts, data, ideas, examples or visionary statements you would like. You will need to be a member of the wiki to be able to edit the page, and that involves signing up for a Wikispaces account and requesting membership. Please remember that this is a public page, so anyone with an Internet connection can see what you've written. If you would rather have someone else add your ideas to the page, or you have something you want to tell us privately, you can send a message to Donna DesRoches or Richard Schwier, and we will be happy to add them.

Here are the current guiding principles and goals from the technology plan:

The guiding principles:

It is not about the technology, it is about the learning
Equity is more than access and hardware
Be safe, be kind online
Computing devices should be ubiquitous and mobile
Platform matters, but only sometimes
Change is constant

Goals that form the basis for the instructional and curricular integration of technology in the school division

All students will:

think creatively, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products using technology.
use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.
access, retrieve, manage, and evaluate information using digital tools
use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems and make informed decisions using appropriate technology tools.
understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior.
demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations.

Thoughts from Donna - June 24, 2009

Greater Breadth: Several teachers have expressed concerns that they cannot book computer lab or laptop time to provide their students with time to complete projects. How do we keep teachers enthusiastic about the potential of using technology when they cannot use it with their students?
Data Collection: do we really know how often and in what ways our teachers are using technology? Perhaps before we plan more strategies we should collect some information using a tool such as this little survey which was developed and used with the iSITS group. It is based on the rubrics created by Doug Johnson that address professional productivity
Expectations for Teachers: is use of technology for teaching and learning an explicit part of the supervision cycle? Do teachers know that there is an expectation that they will use technology? Is it an expectation that teachers will use technology for teaching and learning? Where and how is this stated?
Expectations for Principals: what kind of support, knowledge-building and awareness do principals need to be able to support teachers in their use of technology? Some iSITS members have expressed concerns about an inability to find time to meet and work with staff - how does it become important in an already busy timetable with many different priorities?

OK - I have a dream...a vision... a plan.... for a Principals' Workshop.

Invite (could this be stronger than invite?) principals to an iSITS meeting
After some introductionss, discussion, sharing... move into exploring and analyzing the data collected from the 'teacher skills survey' (above)
Then...an hour of 'Speed Geeking'ala Kim Cofino, Take Your Faculty Speed Geeking - using the knowledge and skills of the iSITS members.
Rather than a focus on tools - each station would feature an outcome from the curriculum and the teacher-presenter would demonstrate how technology is used to meet the outcome. Each presenter would deal with the following questions:
1. What was the impact on student learning?
2. What was easy?
3. What was challenging?
After speed geeking allow for discussion time between iSITS teacher and principal - working on form: 'Here's What. So What. Now What?'
Finish with thought-provoking video and reflection